The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles will square off at Trustmark Park in Pearl Tuesday night.

Photo Courtesy of hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. - After 19 consecutive games at Dudy Noble
Field to open the 2013 season, No. 8 Mississippi State (17-2) takes its
first road test in Pearl, Miss., Tuesday when the Bulldogs meet instate rival Southern Miss (7-8) in a 6:30 p.m. game
at Trustmark Park.

State took the opening game of last weekend's three-game series
against Central Arkansas, 4-2, but
saw its 17-game winning streak, second-longest in school history, come to a
close with a 7-5 extra innings loss to the Bears Saturday before absorbing a 7-3
setback in Sunday's series finale.

The Bulldogs claimed a 5-0 win over USM in last year's meeting at
the home of the Class AA Southern League's Mississippi Braves. Mitch Slauter and Adam Frazier carded two-hit games and
Hunter Renfroe launched his third
home run of the season to extend MSU's all-time lead in the USM series to 77-36.
State has won its last four matchups with the Golden Eagles and split the four
Tristmark Park meetings with USM.

Senior lefty Luis
Pollorena (3-0, 1.88) is slated to make his second start of the season
Tuesday at Trustmark Park, working opposite USM southpaw Mason Robbins (1-1, 3.08). The Laredo,
Texas, native sports a staff-best 14-5 career record with a 3.28 ERA in 44
appearances over three seasons. Tuesday's start will be Pollorena's second in
three career matchups with the Golden Eagles. He earned wins in both previous
meetings (both in 2011), including a six-inning start and shutout performance in
the 2011 NCAA Atlanta Regional.

Renfroe enters Tuesday's game with a team-best .420 batting average
and after an eight-hit, seven-RBI week, also shares (with Alex Detz) the team
RBI lead with 17. Renfroe has hit safely in 13 of his 14 games with multiple-hit
games in his last four and six of his last seven contests. The Crystal Springs,
Miss., product smacked his third and fourth home runs last
week.

MSU enters the week leading the SEC in batting average (.319), hits
(199) and RBI (120) and in staff earned run average (1.73 and strikeouts (184).
The Bulldogs defend at a .975 clip with an SEC-leading 26 double plays.

State returns to Dudy Noble Field this weekend to launch 2013 SEC
competition against defending SEC champion LSU (15-1), ranked as high as second in
this week's polls. Game times in Starkville are set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m.
in a Comcast TV game Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

The radio broadcasts of all four MSU games this week will be
carried on the statewide MSU Baseball Radio Network and available in the Golden
Triangle on the flagship radio station for MSU athletics, WKBB-FM (100.9) in West Point.

IN THE POLLS: The Bulldogs maintained a pair of top 10 national
rankings despite a 2-2 week on the diamond last week State is ranked eighth
(Collegiate Baseball), 10th (NCBWA writers poll), 11th
(USA TODAY Sports coaches poll),
13th (Baseball America), and 14th (Perfect Game).